Israeli forces enter Al Aqsa mosque, assault worshippers
Israel, Gaza militants trade fire
RAMALLAH, April 21, (Agencies): An incursion by the occupying Israeli forces, on Thursday, into Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem left over 20 Palestinians injured, said a humanitarian organization.
According to the Red Crescent Society in Jerusalem, Israeli forces used tear gas and stun grenades during their incursion, which was carried out to facilitate the entry of Jewish extremists into the vicinity of the mosque.
The Israeli government announced that it would prevent Jewish extremists from entering Al-Aqsa mosque from last Friday until the end of the Holy Month of Ramadhan, a decision broken many times by armed groups and Jewish militias.
Palestinian militants fired several rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip early Thursday and Israeli aircraft hit militant targets in Gaza, part of an escalation that was eerily similar to the run-up to last year’s Israel-Gaza war.
The cross-border strikes came against the backdrop of Israeli-Palestinian tensions that have been boiling in Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, hundreds of flagwaving Israeli ultra-nationalists marched toward predominantly Palestinian areas around Jerusalem’s Old City, a demonstrative display of Israeli control over the disputed city seen as a provocation by Palestinians.
Police closed the main road leading to the Damascus Gate of the Old City, the epicenter of last year’s unrest preceding an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. After some pushing and shoving with police, the marchers rallied near the barricades, waving flags, singing and chanting.
A hilltop shrine in the Old City is the emotional ground zero of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and a flashpoint for previous rounds of violence. Known to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, it is the third holiest site in
Islam. It is also the holiest site in Judaism, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site of their biblical temples.
For Palestinians, the mosque compound, administered by Muslim clerics, is also a rare place in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem where they have a measure of control. Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as a future capital.
Palestinian militant groups in Gaza - the ruling Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad - have positioned themselves as defenders of the Jerusalem holy site. On Wednesday, Hamas said Israel would bear “full responsibility for the repercussions” if it allowed the marchers “to approach our holy sites.”
Several rockets were fired from Gaza overnight. Four rockets fired early Thursday were intercepted by Israel, the military said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, and no one claimed the rocket strikes. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire.
Early Thursday, Israeli warplanes conducted a series of airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip, local media reported. Social media posts by activists showed smoke billowing in the air. The Israeli military said the airstrikes were aimed at a militant site and an entrance of a tunnel leading to an underground complex holding chemicals to make rockets.
The military later said its planes attacked another Hamas compound after an anti-aircraft missile was fired from Gaza during the initial airstrikes. It said the missile failed to hit its target and no injuries or damage were reported.
The Arab Ministerial Committee in charge of international action to confront illegal Israeli policies and measures in the occupied city of Jerusalem condemns the Israeli violations against worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, which escalated during the past few days and led to hundreds of injuries and arrests.